Mike Conway held the lead at the start, in front of teammate Sebastian Buemi. Nicolas Lapierre took the LMP2 lead in the #36, with Bruno Senna second in the #31, and Alex Lynn third in the #26. The #66 Ford GT (Stefan Mucke) moved into second in GTE Pro, followed by the #95 Aston (Nicki Thiim). Both trailed Andy Priaulx in the #67 Ford.

The #8 Toyota passed Conway for the lead 10 min into the race, the two Toyotas opening up a 5 sec gap on the Porsches.

Eight minutes later Mucke took the GTE Pro lead from the #67, with Michael Christensen in the #92 Porsche GT Team 911 RSR moving past Priaulx into second.

At 5:34 remaining the Toyotas held a 7.5 sec lead on the first Porsche.

Priaulx pitted half an hour into the race, having fallen to fifth in class. The #91 Porsche took the GTE Pro lead from the #66 Ford at the 5:18 mark.

The Toyotas pitted from 1-2 at 5:14. Buemi led Conway out. Frederic Makowiecki (#91 Porsche) led Mucke by 2.7 sec and Christensen by 8.4 in GTE Pro. The race was officially declared wet but the teams continued to run on slick tires.

With 5:03 left Buemi led Conway by 2.8 sec and Brendon Hartley (#2 Porsche) by 8.3. Makowiecki pitted from the GTE Pro lead.

At 4:54 Lapierre led LMP2, 12.5 sec up on Senna and 15.5 ahead of Matthieu Vaxiviere in the #28 TDS Racing Oreca. Conway passed Buemi for the overall lead two minutes later. Buemi retook the top spot just before pitting at 4:25. Anthony Davidson took over behind the wheel. The #7 came in the next lap, Conway complaining of problems in the car’s rear end and Kobayashi getting into the cockpit.

The #98 Aston Martin remained on point in GTE Am. Mucke pitted from the GTE Pro lead with 4:04 to go, Billy Johnson taking over. Two hours into the race the #8 Toyota (Davidson) led the #2 Porsche (Timo Bernhard) by 4.8 sec and the #1 Porsche by 17 sec. The #36 led LMP2 by 29 sec over the #38, with the #97 Aston Martin out front in GTE Pro.

Davidson continued to lead at the halfway point, followed by Earl Bamber in the #2 Porsche and former Audi champion Andre Lotterer making his Porsche debut in the #1. Menezes continued to lead LMP2 by a large margin over the #38 entry. Vaxiviere, however, was posted the classes fastest laps from third.

Johnson lead the #51 Ferrari by 25 sec in GTE Pro. Richard Lietz ran third in the #91 Porsche. The #98 Aston continued to lead GTE Am, but was under increasing pressure from Cairoli in the #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche. Spirit of Race ran third.

Lopez crashed the #7 Toyota in the fourth hour, bringing out the safety car and rebunching the field. The #8 Toyota and #2 Porsche fought until the finish for the win, Buemi passing Hartley with 12 min remaining to seal the victory. The #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing LMP2 won in class, the first Chinese-owned team to do so in FIA WEC competition. The #31 Vaillante Rebellion Oreca 07-Gibson (Julien Canal, Nicolas Prost, Bruno Senna) finished 20 sec back.

The #67 Ford took advantage of good pit timing to get back into the fray under the safety car and took the victory over the #51 Ferrari (James Calado, Alessandro Per Guidi), and #91 Porsche. The #98 Aston and #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari took each other out in the final lap, giving the #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari (Weng Sun Mok, Keita Sewa, Matt Griffin) the win in its GTE Am debut.